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In a preschool classroom, a little girl was working intently on a drawing. Her teacher noticed her concerted effort, so she went over to ask her what she was drawing. The little girl replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher smiled and responded, “That’s nice, dear. But you know, no one really knows what God looks like.” Unfazed, the little girl never even looked up from her drawing as she said, “That’s because I’m not finished with my picture yet.”

What picture of God do the people you know have in their heads? You will most likely get a different answer to that question from every person you ask. Some see Him as a loving Father. Some think of God as the Good Shepherd. Some picture Him as the all-powerful Creator. Some will reply that He is the Judge. There are those who see Him on a cross and those who see Him as the Risen Lord. Others will describe Him as vengeful or angry or harsh. According to the message of Scripture, all of those things are aspects of who He is.

God wants to be known. That’s why He came down to live among us. He wanted us to understand that He loves us and only wants what is best for us. He was willing to pay the price our sins deserve so that we could be with Him always. This was the most generous, kind, unselfish act ever. And that is the picture of God that resonates most clearly in my heart and mind:  God is Love (1 John 4:8). Not simply a feeling, emotion, or talk. God is love in the sense of doing something. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16).

As a follower of Jesus, you will be the only picture of God some people will see. If we are to make Him known to others, we need to follow His lead. You need to be love, love that does something. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:18). What kind of picture of God are you sharing with people in your life? How well do you represent Him? Are you finished with your picture yet?

The Church needs to remember who we are and what we should be doing. The church, the people of God who have put their faith in Jesus, needs to be busy living their lives as followers of Jesus.

One thing we should be concerned about is customer service. That may sound strange, but we are a people who have been called to serve.

Have you ever had that person “waiting” on you who just doesn’t seem to care. We have had that happen more times than I care to remember. The person who is supposed to be serving us ignores us and does not seem to have any desire to help us. You get the impression that we didn’t matter at all to that person.

Have you ever had a server like that? Have you ever BEEN a server like that? Something we tend to forget is that in the church, we are not the customers. We are to be the servants. Jesus tells us that repeatedly. He gives us the example to follow, like He did during the Last Supper when He washed the feet of His disciples and said…

John 13:15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

That same evening, when the disciples were jockeying for position, arguing who was most important among them, Jesus said:

Luke 22:27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

This same thing had been addressed earlier when the mother of James and John asked if one of her sons could sit on Jesus’ right and one on His left in His kingdom. Jesus puts everthing back into proper perspective saying:

Matthew 20:26–28 … whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The one who came to offer Himself as payment for the sins of the world also came to show us how to be servants to the world. The problem we have is that having a servant sounds so much more appealing than being a servant. We want to be the ones who are served, not the ones who serve others. But that is not the life to which you have been called. When Jesus gets a hold of you, you belong to Him. You want to follow Him because you know what He has done for you. And that means you take on the role of a servant.

How can you show Jesus the gratitude you have for what He earned for you with His suffering and death and resurrection? Be a servant, the kind of servant Jesus was.

I came across an article entitled “The Wisdom of the Dakota Indians.” The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. That sounds self-evident. It is good advice. It makes sense. If you find yourself riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. So why don’t we follow it? How many of the following strategies have we tried in dealing with a dead horse?

• Purchase a stronger whip
• Change riders
• Appoint a committee to study the horse
• Arrange to visit other places to see how they ride dead horses
• Lower the standards so that dead horses are acceptable
• Reclassify the dead horse as “living impaired.”
• Harness several dead horses together to increase speed
• Provide additional funding to increase the dead horse’s performance
• Do a study to see if lighter rider’s would improve the dead horse’s ability to function
• Declare that the dead horse carries low overhead and therefore should remain in use.
• Hope that the dead horse will come back to life

We all have to deal with a dead horse from time to time. Back in 2010, the congregation I served made the difficult decision to abandon a building program that we had been working on for more than three years and had spent well over $100,000 on architect fees. It was a trying time.

I reminded the congregation that the church was not our planned facility, nor was it the current facility with its bad plumbing and foundation problems. People make up the church. Buildings are simply tools for us to use as we go about our business of making disciples. If a building keeps us from doing that, it has no place in our lives.

The word church is the most common translation of the Greek word “Ekklesia” and it literally means the “called out ones.” It is not used in Scripture to describe a building, but the people that have been called out of this world to be disciples, believers, followers of Jesus. We have been brought together by the assurance that God loves us. He demonstrated that love with a cross and an empty tomb. We know that Jesus is our Savior from sin and death. We rejoice in sin forgiven and life eternal. We live in confident victory. And that is true whether a group of believers owns a building, rents one, or worships in people’s homes.

In the church, at times there will be disappointments and setbacks. Sometimes you need to abandon “dead horses.” Just remember who we are, the redeemed and forgiven children of God who make up the church, the church Jesus promised to build, the one of whom He said  “The gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt. 16:18) Jesus was talking about His Church. Not buildings. Not facilities. He was talking about the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, all true believers in Christ. In spite of disappointments, the Church goes on.

I recently watched a movie about a woman whose brother was convicted of a murder. He appealed, but lost that case, too. He was sentenced to life without th3 possibility of parole. There was nothing he could do about it. However, his sister was convinced he was innocent, and vowed to do everything in her power to exonerate him. She got a college degree and went to law school. She passed the bar and became an attorney. He was convicted before DNA testing was a possibility. After an long search, she found the evidence after sixteen years, and waited for the DNA testing, which took over a year to come back. Finally, it proved that the blood at the scene did not belong to her brother. She had dedicated her life to helping her brother, all because she was convinced of his innocence.

We have a different story. We have someone who knew without a doubt that we were guilty and sentenced to death. Yet He willingly dedicated His life to making sure we would not have to die eternally. There was nothing we could do to get out of our sentence. But Jesus did what it took, taking our place in punishment, even though we were guilty and deserved to die.

Romans 5:6–8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Remember and rejoice in that fabulous love that God has for you on this Lord’s day.

I heard a story years ago at an LWML Convention from Pastor Kim DeVries. He spoke about his first church in Mississippi. He was preaching at an evening service when a thunderstorm knocked the power out. He also went silent, not knowing what to do, until a voice called out, “Keep preaching — we can see Jesus even in the dark!”

John wrote at the beginning of His Gospel: The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  Some translations have the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5 RSV).  We live in a world of darkness, and it is all around us. That darkness makes its presence known in so many ways in our lives.

My daughter told me recently that her three-year-old daughter was watching one of her favorite shows, Peppa Pig. She came into the kitchen and told her mom, “That show was so silly. One of the kids said she had two mommies.” We see depictions of “alternate” lifestyles in almost every movie and television show these days. If we say we disagree, we are vilified and attacked. And that is just one example.

Our nation faces crises because people have turned away from God and His Word as a standard. Society has redefined marriage, implemented health care policies that tell us we cannot follow God’s Word and our conscience, and is demanding that churches fund things that go against our beliefs. The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide.

There is darkness in our personal lives as well. We all struggle with our demons that seek to drag us down and away from God. We often listen to them and act as though there is no hope. The darkness is near.

But we have the light. It has shined on us.

2 Corinthians 4:6  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Jesus has conquered the Prince of darkness and earned victory for us through His sinless life, His death of sacrifice and His resurrection triumph. The Light has shined on us. We can see Jesus even in the dark, because He overcomes the darkness. And now you have been called to let your light shine, the light that shined on you.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, keep the light of Jesus shining. It will have an impact whether you realize it or not. A little verse makes more and more sense to me the older I get:

Only one life, twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last.

1 Timothy 4:10 … we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

If Jesus died for everyone, why isn’t everyone saved? I googled that question a few years back, and the articles I found all said something different.

• Universalists believe that because Jesus died for everyone, everyone will be saved, whether they believe in Jesus or not.
• Our Calvinist brothers and sisters maintain that Jesus did not die for everyone, but only for those who He knew would believe in him, using the Scriptural term the “elect.” This is often called Limited Atonement.
• There is the position that says that the invitation to be saved is offered to everyone, but some reject it and do not receive the benefit of what Jesus did.

These different positions all refer to Scripture to support their understanding. Scripture clearly says that Jesus died for the sins of all people.

• 1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

However, we also find in the Bible that not everyone will be saved.

• In the days of Noah, the wicked died unsaved in the flood (Genesis 6-9)
• When Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated (Genesis 19) those people died unsaved
• But it was not just an Old Testament thing. When Jesus was crucified, one thief was told he would be with Jesus in paradise. The unrepentant one on the other side was not told that.

People die unsaved. You have probably known some people like that.  So the question remains: If Jesus actually died for the sins of everyone who ever lived, then why does anyone go to Hell?

Again, one answer is to say that Jesus died only for those he knew would believe in Him. They will cite passages to support their position. Matthew 25 talks about Jesus separating the sheep from the goats, and John 10 has Jesus calling Himself the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. So they say Jesus died for the sheep, but not the goats. And in Ephesians 5 it says “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her”, which they understand to say that He died only for the church and not for those who are not believers.

So how do we reconcile those passages to the ones like this?

• 1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
• [Jesus] is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

The teachings about Jesus as Savior of all has been a source of disagreement in the church for a long time, and most likely it will be until Christ returns. Let me affirm that anyone who puts their faith and confidence in Jesus as his or her Savior from sin has been saved. If you have faith that Jesus is your Savior, you are saved. That is true whether you believe Jesus died for everyone or not. If you believe He is your Savior, if you trust that His death made payment for your sin, you get the benefit of everything He accomplished for you.

Our Lutheran understanding of this issue is that all of the passages cited above are God’s Word, so they are all correct. Even if they appear to contradict, we are willing to live with that seeming conflict. If you are saved, it is God’s doing, not your own, and He deserves all the credit and honor and glory. If a person is not saved, it is because he or she rejected God’s grace, and the blame lies with that person, not God.

I heard someone explain this teaching using the illustration of a meal. God has prepared a meal and you have been called to “come and get it.” It has already been done for you. When you eat the meal, you receive it and get the benefit of it. Your eating of the meal does not make it real. It was already there and existed. The eating simply receives what was prepared for you. In the same way, faith does not cause God’s forgiveness – that was earned by Jesus. Faith receives what Jesus earned.

 [Jesus] is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

Jesus is the Savior of all people and some people are not being saved. They will not eat the meal that has been prepared for them. Jesus died for all and is the Savior of all men. It is available for everyone. And those who put their faith in Jesus as a result of the Spirit’s work in their lives will reap the benefits of all Jesus earned.

Luke 12:32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

When I was in my late thirties I started waking up early every day. We were living in town back then, so I decided to get up and walk/jog. I was up anyway, and it was nice and quiet out at that time. It gave me time to think and to pray while I got some exercise. The first morning I was out, I was walking down a street in my neighborhood, deep in thought, when all of a sudden I heard a ferocious barking. I stopped in my tracks, my heart skipped a beat, and my eyes strained in the darkness to see this beast that was surely going to take a big bite out of me. It took me a few seconds to realize that this was the house where they kept their dog tied out in the front yard. Assured that he was securely tied, I continued on, my fear subsided. Day after day I walked past in the darkness and the dog sounded the alarm. Then one morning I walked past that house and there was no barking. Now I was afraid all over again. Was the dog loose, lying in wait in the shadows, ready to pounce on me for having taunted it all those mornings, walking by just out of his reach?

Fear is a funny thing. It is often irrational, yet it can take over your life in an instant. Your heart races, you break out in a cold sweat, your mouth goes dry. Fear seizes control of your entire being. It comes in so many forms: Fear of old age, fear of being alone, fear of losing a job, fear of disease, fear of heights, fear of death. Fear can be a terrible, even crippling thing for some people.

All too often, fear becomes the guiding force in the lives of people. Fear dictates their decision-making more than God’s Word and His promises. How many times has your fear of what others might think led you to do something that you know is wrong? It all goes back to sin. Fear is the result of sin, just as it was in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, when God came looking for the beloved crown of His creation, they were hiding. When asked why, Adam replied “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid … so I hid.” (Genesis 3:10).  Scripture gives us plenty of other examples of people letting fear influence their decisions.

• Abraham’s fear led him to lie about Sarah being his wife
• Moses was afraid after he killed the Egyptian
• Samuel was afraid to tell Eli of the vision God had given him.
• Isaiah felt fear in the presence of God
• Jeremiah was afraid when called to be a prophet
• The disciples were afraid in a storm with Jesus sleeping in the boat

Fear is a result of sin. Some people will defiantly proclaim, “I’m not afraid of anything. Don’t mess with me!” But we all have our fears. Most people are afraid when they should not be and not afraid when they should be. People will fear men, fear animals, fear the world, fear situations, but they will not fear GOD! That is the fear you should have:

The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread (Isaiah 8:13)

If you have the fear of God in your life, recognizing Him as the one in control, respecting Him as your God. knowing that He loved you, became your Redeemer, and was sacrificed for your sins … if you have that fear, Jesus is speaking to you when He says, “Have no fear, little flock.” You do not need to fear anything else. Christians can have no fear if you have the right fear!

The Psalmist reminds us The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; (Psalm 111:10) We respect Him and with awe recognize who He is, what He has done, the love He has shown. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. You do not need to fear because the one who is in control of everything has given you His kingdom. You Rule with Him. It is not just something for the future, but yours now.

Sometimes people describe their fears saying, “It scared me to death!” Jesus tells you that instead of being scared to death you should remember that He loved you to death. Have no fear, little flock. God can help you overcome your fears because He has overcome the problem of sin. All your sin was placed on Jesus Christ, and He carried it to the cross in your place. Not only did He pay for your sins with His death, but He rose again to assure you that you have the Kingdom. He loved you to death and keeps on loving you. You have been given the kingdom. Have no fear, little flock.